Ch. 5—Media portrayals of groups: Distorted social mirrors
Guidelines for in-class discussions and exercises:
• A project could be created for students in which they find a number of positive and
negative media depictions of various groups in the media. This project could include a
written paper and/or visual examples.
• A paper or project could be created with this theme: If you were an alien and your only
exposure to Earth was American media, what kinds of conclusions might you draw
about males, females, African Americans, college students, etc., etc.
• Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly videos on women and advertising can spark great in-
class discussions.
CHAPTER SUMMARIES/ABSTRACTS
Chapter 5: Media portrayals of groups: Distorted social mirrors
Chapter 5 is perhaps one of the most important in the book because we concentrate on the media reality
created by mass communication’s portrayals of different groups of people. We explore a wide range of